The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system and method to allow authorized pop-ups on a website. 2. Description of Related Art
Content retrieved over the Internet in response to a user request is usually presented in a primary window of a web browser, such as Internet Explorer™ developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Some Internet content contains embedded instructions written in a script language, which cause opening of a new browser window without an additional user request.
Such a new browser window usually “pops up” in front of the primary window with the requested content, and is often referred to as a “popup” window. Usually, the size of a popup window is smaller than the size of a primary window, although this is not required, and the number of interface elements displayed in a popup window is smaller than in a primary window to increase space available for content. For instance, some popup windows display only a window title, and not a menu bar, a toolbar and an address bar. Content displayed in a popup window is often optimized for a fixed size and is presented in a window having non-resizable borders.
A popup window may also be opened in response to a direct user input, such as a click on a link. In this case, the user input does not specify that a new window has to appear. Rather, a content provider causes a new window to open by embedding special instructions associated with a standard user action. A significant number of Web sites prefer to display new content in an additional window without an address bar, instead of replacing content in a primary window.
Popup files may also be loaded into a user's system when a user downloads a file or program from the Internet. When downloading a file or program, additional undesirable files may be downloaded and installed on the user's system that cause popups to be presented when the user performs some action.
Popup windows may play a useful role, providing an additional means of delivering content outside of a primary window. Web sites may use popup windows to display advertisements or supplemental content such as navigation hints, subscription offers, input feedback, etc. However, many Internet users consider popup windows to be annoying distractions that decrease quality of their browsing experience. One of the main reasons for this is that popup windows make navigation more difficult: a user must manually close each popup window to avoid the accumulation of irrelevant windows on a desktop. As a result, a user has to spend at least twice as much effort to leave a site with a popup window than a site with no popup windows.
Content providers on the Internet also view this difficulty of navigation as a negative affect. That is, popup windows may often cause the user's attention to be distracted from the content of the web page provided by the content provider and cause the user to go through extra unnecessary steps to reach the requested content. In worst case scenarios, the frustration experienced by the user at navigating past the popup windows to reach the requested content may reach a level where the user chooses not to bother with viewing the requested content at all. Thus, popup windows, while capable of providing valuable added functionality and information, may also provide a source of such frustration and inconvenience to the user that both the end users and content providers would like to block the use of unauthorized popup windows in conjunction with a content provider's web page.
To prevent unsolicited popup windows from appearing, users may install special applications known as popup blockers. For instance, a Pop-Up Stopper™ Pro application, developed by Panicware Inc. of Seattle, Wash., enables a user to prevent all popup windows from opening. However, blocking all popup windows may significantly degrade the user experience on the sites that use popup windows to provide relevant content, references or input feedback. To mitigate this problem, Pop-Up Stopper™ Pro and other similar applications allow users to specify a list of sites allowed to open popup windows, and reject popup windows initiated by a site that is not included in the list. A problem with such a “white list” implementation is that, unless a popup window is displayed, a user may not know whether it is useful enough to request its display in the future.
Furthermore, such a “white list” provides a potential hole through which sources may insert their popup windows. In other words, if a source knows that a particular website uses popups to provide useful content, the source may exploit this to its own advantage by keying their own popup windows to be displayed when accessing that particular website. As a result, both wanted and unwanted popups will appear on the user's browser.
To give a user an option to see relevant popup windows, an alternative approach has been provided, in which a user is presented with all popup windows except those that are contained in a “black list” or contain proscribed words in their content or title. In this case, the user is constantly required to teach an application which popup windows must be rejected. Stored black lists rapidly become obsolete with changes of domains and headers used by advertisers. In addition, rejecting a popup window based on its title or content may not provide a workable solution because a popup window has to be loaded on the user computer before its title or content becomes known. As a result, this approach decreases a useful bandwidth and may also present a security risk if popup content was retrieved as a result of redirection to an unknown server.
Thus, the traditional solutions to curtailing the nuisance of popup windows tend to be over inclusive by blocking all popup windows, provide some hole through which unwanted popup windows may still be presented to the user, or simply are not workable due to the rapid changes of the Internet and the manner by which popup windows are loaded by web browsers.